The big question mark was whether or not there was a magic line of face holds that would link in from a neighbouring route.

Lard. We got dead-ended many, many times and reluctantly reached the conclusion that perhaps the route wasn’t going to go free after all.

Late in August, feeling a bit demoralized, the Bugaboos spirits dealt us a fat hand. Segal was toproping the crack and spied an invisible side-pull coming in from Sweet Sylvia, the route to the left of the Tom Egan. He spied one hold, then another, then another. Sloping sidepulls and razor-sharp crimps – some of which were the smallest we could hold – leading into the Egan in a 15- metre crescent-shaped arc. This discovery had us hooting and hollering at the glacier below. A totally free line. We had no idea how hard that pitch, which we jokingly dubbed The Drunken Dawn Wall, would push us over the upcoming summers.

Over the next two years, 2013 and 2014, Segal and I essentially wrote off July and August as Tom Egan time. We’d clear the calendar and hike into the mountains for the heat of the summer. We both managed to toprope the crux splitter clean. Leading it was a different story. People at Applebee dome campground could stare straight out at us and frequently watch us bomb off the wall – Applebee TV, as it became known. We called the crux splitter, Blood on the Crack, after the Bob Dylan album, a favourite of mine. It still is the most sheer, heart-in-the-throat pitch I’ve ever had the pleasure of climbing on. On early lead